While social media platforms continued to be ablaze with frustrated Cochrane parents fighting early morning traffic on busy roadways, Cochrane schools and Rocky View Transportation continue to encourage parents to bus, rather than drive, their children to school.
As parents begin to think about signing up for school bus services for the 2015-16 school year, Rocky View Transportation asserts that the school bus remains the safest way for the children to get to school.
“If fewer families drove their children to school and took advantage of the bus service, this change would reduce congestion,” said Audrey Bloxham, director of transportation for Rocky View Schools, adding that the two new elementary schools to open in Cochrane will also alleviate some pressure.
With an astonishing 23 per cent growth since 2013, the roads and intersections throughout Cochrane have been repeatedly noted as the top contentious issue in this town.
Holy Spirit principal Kevin DeForge and Mitford School principal Nancy Dutchik both agree that school buses are an efficient means of helping with the congestion issues at drop off and pick up zones at their schools.
“Bussing is even good for children at a young age, as it helps to build a sense of independence,” said DeForge. “We assign a few ‘bus buddies’ to each our kindergarten and Grade 1 students to ensure they feel secure in knowing where they are going.”
Dutchik said over the last two years the Mitford team has worked diligently with their school community to ease congestion issues — including increased safety patrols, RCMP presence and frequent communication with parents to remind them of the importance of speedy drop off and pick up needs at the busy school.
“We also encourage our kids to ride their bikes and walk whenever the weather is nice,” she said, adding that a neighbour on Quigley Drive (who lives across from the school) recently spoke to her, commending the improvement in less congestion at the school at peak times.
But for some Cochrane parents, there are reasons other than safety, congestion and efficiency to drive your children to school.
Lori-Lynn Pidsadowski is a Cochrane mother of two who has faced some issues of concern with her Grade 2 son’s daily bus trek to Elizabeth Barrett.
“I’ve reached the point where I almost prefer to drive him,” she admitted — although her reasons are different.
For Pidsadowski, who dealt with some bullying issues last year on the bus, this year has been spent dealing with the battle of her son sitting next to older children on the bus, viewing content on iPads she would not approve for her young son to be watching.
Although she said she respects her son’s bus driver and has a good line of communication with her, it is unreasonable for anyone to expect a bus driver to take her focus off the road to police some 50 kids on her bus.
“It’s just bizarre to me that parents would let their kids take iPads on the bus,” she said, adding that it’s a losing battle to expect kids to view appropriate content when not supervised.
“I would rather battle the traffic than the behaviour problems.”
Cochrane mother of two Tara Heier said that although her experiences of her two children riding the bus from Bow Ridge to Glenbow Elementary were positive, she and her husband have decided to resume driving — due to flexible work schedules.
She said that their direct route is mostly free of heavy congestion and saves her family $440 a year in school bus fees.
